


good as new

by crutchiebytheway



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, Canon Era, Gen, Letter From the Refuge, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 08:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crutchiebytheway/pseuds/crutchiebytheway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crutchie says his final goodbyes in a letter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	good as new

_Dear Jack,_

_Greetings from the Refuge._

You pause. What do you say? What are your final words?

You begin to hear some of the other boys around you, and you don't like it. Coughing, sneezing, yelling, crying. You can't stand to listen to it for even one more minute, so you dive right back into your letter.

_How are you? I'm okay._

That's a lie, and you know it. You write it down anyways.

_Guess I wasn't much help yesterday. Synder soaked me real good with my crutch-_

It hadn't just been Synder, it had been the Delancey brothers as well, and a lot of the boys here in the Refuge with you, but why worry Jack more than you have to?

_Oh yeah, Jack, this is Crutchie by the way._

Just in case.

_These here guards, they is rude. They say "Jump, boy, you jump or you're screwed!"_

These guards, they notice you. Their eyes always fall to you in a crowd and you're the one they torment and assign odd tasks to. For everything you can't do for them, you get another bruise added to your collection.

Too dark, damn it. You want him to remember you like you were before. 

_But the food ain't so bad, least so far-_

Jack's been here, you can't lie to him.

_'Cause so far they ain't brung us no food!_

Oh my god, they still haven't brought you any food, and you're starving. Your stomach feels like it's going to cave in on itself. And you thought you were hungry before. Some of the other boys seem to be struggling just as much as you, holding their stomaches and wailing, screaming, adding the noise level that you _hate_ and you're pretty sure you even saw one boy try to eat one of the rats that crawl around the building. It sinks in once more that you're going to die in here. You're going to die and the guards think it's all just one big joke, don't they?

_Ha. Ha._

You force your thoughts to move on. You have to finish the letter, you have to give him something. He's lost so much, you feel bad that you have to be added to the list. You write down the first thought you have.

_I miss the rooftop._

It all comes rushing back, and you don't bother to censor anything, you just write everything you think.

_Sleepin' right out in the open, in your penthouse in the sky. There's a cool breeze blowin', even in July..._

You can almost feel that cool breeze on your face now. 

_Anyways, so guess what, there's this secret escape plan I got._

That's how Jack survived, right? He escaped.

_Tie a sheet to the bed, toss the end out the window, climb down then take off like a shot!_

__You'd run all the way back to the lodging house, and Jack would hug you, he'd be proud of you for escaping on your own, and Finch would smile, Race would give you a pat on the back and you'd be home. With your family._ _

__The dull ache spikes up in your leg again, and you try to shift to make yourself more comfortable, but it only heightens the pain. You wince._ _

__Be realistic. You weren't ever going to see them._ _

_Maybe though, not tonight, I ain't slept and my leg still ain't right._

__You change the subject fast. Hopefully he won't catch on._ _

_Hey, but Pulitzer, he's going down,_ You know he is, Jack could do anything, _and then Jack, I was thinking we might just go, like you was sayin'..._

__The nuns that used to give you food in the morning always talked about heaven. You don't know if you're allowed there, but you imagine it's something like Jack's Santa Fe._ _

_...Where it's clean and green and pretty, with no buildings in your way. And you're riding Palominos every day...Once that train makes-_

__You've gotten too excited and the other boys shush you. You shiver at the sound. You should really wrap things up in your letter, or they'll come for you again and then you're really in trouble. "Damn this place," you whisper to yourself._ _

_I'll be fine, good as new._

_You can't worry him. You repeat it to yourself once more. You've seen how much he cares for the boys, and he has all of them to worry about on top of managing the strike._

_But Jack, there's one thing I need you to do. On the roof top you said that a family looks out for each other. So you tell all the fellas for me to protect one another!_

_The end._

_You wish you could see him before you go._

_Your friend,_

_You sink a little lower. You're more than just friends._

_Your best friend,_

_Still not right._

_Your brother,_

__There it is. Goodbye to Jack, your brother. The family that actually cared about you._ _

_Crutchie._

__The boys yell at you again, so you quickly blow out your candle and sink back down into your bunk. You clutch the letter to your chest and hope no one can hear you cry._ _

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think! kudos, comment, or come talk to me on tumblr @conlonspots


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